Advice

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A man opened a shop selling incense sticks. He had a wide variety of them. Outside his shop, he put up a signboard:
“Fragrant incense sticks available here.”

The shop started doing well.

One day, a customer came in and said,
“There’s a contradiction in your board! Why would incense sticks be fragrant? Aren’t all incense sticks meant to be fragrant?”

The shopkeeper found the comment logical and removed the word fragrant from the board. Now the board read:
“Incense sticks available here.”

A few days later, another gentleman said,
“Why have you written here? Isn’t it obvious that you’re selling them here when the shop is right here?”

The shopkeeper agreed again and removed the word here. Now the board read:
“Incense sticks available.”

Sometime later, another clever person commented,
“What’s the point of writing available? Just writing incense sticks is enough!”

So the shopkeeper shortened it further. The board now just said:
“Incense sticks”

Later, a teacher visited the shop, looked at the board, and said,
“When your shop sells only incense sticks, what’s the point of putting up a sign? People can tell just by looking at it.”

Taking that advice too, the shopkeeper took down the board completely.

Over time, the shop’s sales started declining. The shopkeeper became worried.

One day, an old friend came to visit after many years. The shopkeeper couldn’t hide his concerns, and when asked, he explained the downfall in business.

The friend looked around, thought for a moment, and said,
“You fool! You’ve set up such a nice shop and can’t even put up a proper signboard that says —
‘Fragrant incense sticks available here’?!”

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*👉 *Moral:
In life, you’ll always find people offering suggestions—even if they’re not experts. They may sound full of knowledge in science, philosophy, or sociology, but that doesn’t make them right. If you keep listening to such unsolicited advice, you’ll end up like that shopkeeper.**

When making decisions, seek guidance only from true experts—or better yet, listen to your inner wisdom. No one knows you better than you know yourself.

Always stay cheerful — What you have is enough.
The one whose mind is joyful — has everything.